WriterAction - Update

If the admins at WA had any desire to keep the website up, they’d post a response here.

They have bigger issues, Kevin.

Like inflating the post count on Katherine Fulgate’s moribund “SPOTLIGHT MEMBER OF THE MONTH” thread.

So nice you said it twice.

Although I’m more concerned with a member of the Board of Directors for the WGA sending me e-mails, soliciting some on-line bullshit, script pay service.

Why would I pay a fee to read unproduced scripts when I can get them from a studio to read for free?

The WGA is fucked up.

Bigger issues are at hand, Kevin.

Such as how to keep Katherine Fulgate’s withering MEMBER SPOTLIGHT OF THE MONTH thread from dying a Sabaroffian death.

They have bigger issues at hand, Kevin.

Like how to inflate the post count on Katherine Fulgate’s moribund “SPOTLIGHT MEMBER OF THE MONTH” thread.

Not to go off-topic, but I think Talbott’s Trifecta-post is a great example of the varied interpretations on a single statement.

Which is the funniest?

I vote #3. Comments aren’t written. They’re rewritten.

This thread already has a higher post count than KF’s SPOTLIGHT.

Is the WA spotlight always one of the admins?

Sounds like most of the WRITERS aren’t getting enough ACTION.

“Is the WA spotlight always one of the admins?”

Usually it’s an admin or some retired dude who wrote crap tv forty years ago.

Once it was Josh Olson.

Once it was Talbott too.

But only cuz he made himself the spotlight member.

And the management didn’t respond kindly.

They deleted his thread and replaced it with one by a writer of “Family Affair” years after he’d died.

“Looks like things are gonna get worse there before they get better.”

Serious thought, Craig — why do you assume things will get better? Wouldn’t the proper guess, given the direction of WA, be simply “things are gonna get worse.”?

For the majority of organizations, getting worse is not a sign that health is around the corner. In fact, it’s never a cause or indicator of impending improvement — if anything, it’s a warning bell that things have to change. And WA has shown — and is showing again, with Brian’s resignation — that it has no willingness to change.

At this point, change would be admitting that you’re right, which they’ll never do, because you’re Satan. So, by calling for change, you’ve assured that WA will never change, never get better.

Wait, was that your plan all along?

It’s a pity. Brian clearly was in favour of rotating admins or fixed terms, but the current admins, whilst happy to add new people, are not willing to step down themselves.

Well, it’s their board and their call.

Perhaps some of the other suggestions like pruning the blister threads and sunsetting ancient ones that nobody posted on for 3-4 years might be adopted.

I think the best tactic might be to write a standard email to a sample of twenty of the thousand plus who signed up but never posted as to WHY it wasn’t attractive enough for them - see if there’s a common theme.

Louise B,

After reading all of the posts from the last thread, I would think the answer was obvious:

Way too much interference from the Administrators.

Former WA Lover:

Heh.

Well, you’re probably right. It’s probably never going to change.

Satan?

Get thee behind me, Mazin.

I believe young Jeff Lowell also had a Member Spotlight. Although the timely release of Alex Sokoloff’s book (not movie) necessitated him sharing the spotlight that month. I guess that made us twice blessed.

Still, whatever claims of humorlessness you can stick on Bob Sabaroff, I would never slag off his experience. Never understood his anti-Talbott fixation but Sabaroff’s still a pretty cool motherfucker.

Bob Sabaroff was kicking ass and taking names in the lunatic world of television before most of us could even work a remote. The man helped create Then Came Bronson, for crissakes. We can say all we want about what a fucking mess WA is, but any place that gives that cat a forum from which to blow his horn has at least one thing going for it.

PS: I had no idea Alex had given herself a spotlight. That’s hilarious.

Brother Olsun had a spotlight thread?

Why doesn’t it show up?

I think he said in a past thread that after the fight with WA he asked them to take it down(something about if they were going to be jerks he wasn’t going to let them pimp his column or something like that).

And for the record Josh, I’m the know-nobody 3,000 mile away East Coast wanna-be writer who enjoys listening to all the pros talk that you constantly mention. Just so we have a formal introduction! ;-)

Am I the only one who’s had whole posts go missing without explanation?

Board glitch or overzealous moderation? With Horiuchi leaving, I’m not sure I even care enough to ask.

Casey McCabe is an unsung genius, but he made one error: It was not Alex Sokoloff, but Andrea Berloff, whose World Trade Center was in theaters at the same time as Jeff Lowell’s John Tucker Must Die, who shared the August Spotlight with Jeff.

Thanks for reminding me, Doug. I’d almost forgotten how much I suffered by comparison by being up against a real writer. ;)

Craig, i wanna hear about some contraversial writerly shit next. Can you do that? Something about rewriting being harder than writing, maybe bring up the old faithful…protecting original writers.

Or maybe some technique shit.

Thanks for reminding me, Doug. I’d almost forgotten how much I suffered by comparison by being up against a real writer. ;)

Now, don’t make me blush.

Oh, you mean…?

BTW, John Tucker was hilarious. But Berloff’s script really brought down the…

No, better not.

Is it wrong to pray for another’s death?

If so, I’m wrong.

Doug is correct.

But I like my version better.

Though I’m always honored to share opinions with Craig, I reached my conclusions about WriterAction on my own, by observing its operation from both sides of the administrative fence for a number of years. My analysis has very little to do with personalities, and everything to do with a failure (common to just about every group of human beings in the history of mankind) to set up mechanisms to deal with the inevitable conflicts, abuses, resentments and power struggles that come with - trying to organize anything. We’re all writers and we all know this - throw a bunch of people together, they’re going to fight and moan and scrape each other raw and agitate for power - they’re going to preen and poke and boast and complain - they’re going to suck at getting along until the right mechanisms are in place. Anyone who tries to change anything is going to be feared and excoriated; anyone who tries to maintain order is going to be resented and resisted.

I’d love to be able to blame some evil administrator or some malign dissident for all the problems on WriterAction, but they stemmed from us, from all of us, from the same human stuff that’s the bread and butter of all high drama and low comedy. Until we step up, let go of the petty cyber-resentments, and design a system that provides some kind of oversight, we’re going to be in Lord of the Flies, of course. What else did we expect? Just because we write about the human condition doesn’t mean we aren’t subject to its laws.

God darnit, Mr. Horiuchi, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.

That from the man who wrote the best fifty-five word story of all time.

If you don’t know, folks, weep.

Very nicely put, Brian. The human condition in a nutshell.

Is it true that another WA admin has quit?

And if so, how come it wasn’t Alex?

I want to know why any comments critical of Craig Mazin or his little circle of friends are struck from this blog and the commenter then banned.

HUH?!

It is true that another admin has quit.

Clifford Green was one of the original founders of WA. He just quit, and he cited his inability to work with Alex Sokoloff as the reason.

Inquiring:

A cursory review of the comment sections will turn up probably hundreds of comments critical of me. Criticism is allowed and even encouraged. All I’ve ever required is some basic minimum of civility. If someone’s comments are deleted, then I clearly felt they violated that. If someone is banned from commenting, it means they have violated that egregiously and willfully.

If “criticizing Craig Mazin” were a cause for banning, Josh Olson would have been gone about a year ago, ya know?

I agree with Brian. The member spotlights seem to be a thing of the past. The latest chatter is about getting the WGA to sponsor their own Board and do away with WA altogether. Which is a shame. It could have been a great thing. With a bit less ego and prevarication. Thanks a lot, Satan.